Father’s Day

 

This morning some of my first thoughts were of Romans 8:14 – 16 and Galatians 4:6 – 7:

 

“For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption [the placing of a son] as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit Himself testifies that we are children of God...” (Romans 8:14 – 16).

 

“Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, carrying, “Abba! Father!” Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.” (Galatians 4:6 – 7).

 

Do we realize that we are the sons and daughters of the Living God? That we have been invited by Christ, and through Christ, into the fellowship of the Trinity?

 

Can we hear the words of Jesus as He taught us to pray, “Our Father…”? Can we not see that our Lord Jesus came to open the gates of sonship to His brothers and sisters?

 

Do we hear the words of the resurrected Christ, “…but go to My brethren and say to them, I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God”? (John 20:17).

 

The same John who wrote the Gospel that bears his name, also wrote a letter in which he said, “See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God…” (1 John 3:1a).

 

And then we have one of the great incarnational passages in Scripture, Hebrews 2:5 – 18 in which we see that the Father is bringing “many sons to glory” through Jesus Christ, and that “both He who sanctifies [Jesus)] and those who are sanctified [us] are all from one Father; for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren.”

 

Do we see and accept the glorious Gospel – truth that our Father’s eternal desire is to have sons and daughters transformed into the image of His Firstborn? Do we behold the unfathomable mystery that we are now in the Father and that the Father loves us as He loves His Firstborn? (John Chapter 17).

 

Can we not see that we are called to be conformed to the image of the Firstborn Son of our Father so that Jesus will be the “firstborn among many brethren”? (Romans 8:29).

 

What a glorious Father’s Day it can be if we will accept the magnificent love of God, if we will confess our sonship and the glorious grace that has come to us through Jesus Christ.

 

It is because we are all of One Father, that our Lord Jesus calls us His brothers and sisters.

 

Let us cry, “Abba! Daddy! Father!”